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23/07/2011

For the last couple of months, I’ve been producing a toolkit of step by step guides designed to encourage language tutors in the Adult Community Learning sector to explore the potential of new technologies to enhance their existing courses.

The idea of the project funded by The Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) and coordinated by ACL Curriculum Manager for Languages Nola Marshall is to offer students a blended approach of distance learning and face to face contact so they can extend their learning outside of the classroom at a time that suits them.

In addition to creating the comprehensive guides, I delivered 3 consecutive days of training to participating tutors at Witham Adult Community Learning Centre with the help of Nola, Maria the Curriculum Manager for ICT and e-learning and two lovely technicians Bob and Paul.

We looked at different ways of creating, publishing and subscribing to content concentrating on the tools and technologies I had covered in the toolkit. These included:

Posterous as an easy way of blogging content via email in an open, moderated or password-protected environment

Audacity for recording and editing podcasts

Accessing creative commons licensed images through Flickr and different search tools such as Behold, Compfight and Xpert

SlideShare and publishing PowerPoints or creating Slidecasts with embedded audio

Collaborative writing and publishing resources with Wikispaces

Creating interactive exercises with Hot Potatoes

Creating word clouds with Wordle (not covered during the training due to time constraints)

Using Text to Speech software Speakonia to support listening and reading skills (not covered during the training due to time constraints)

We also touched upon using Twitter as microblogging service and a way of developing a personal learning network and I suggested tutors follow colleagues from the MFL Twitterati. I was delighted minius666 and ElinorMcN rose to the challenge there and then!

Everyone set up their own Posterous blog to publish their outcomes on to. Here is the one I created for this purpose and here is the one I set up prior to the training to show examples of my outcomes for each tutorial. Maria created a wonderful example called Moodle Magic.

We covered three tutorials a day which some found quite intensive, but with the comprehensive notes I gave out I'm sure tutors will have all the support they need as well as time to reflect over the summer. I've also told tutors they can contact me if they get stuck which I hope they will.

Hats off to Rick, ACL IT technician in Harlow for agreeing to take part in our Flashmeeting on the last day of the training, the full recording of which can be found here. He did brilliantly fielding questions from the tutors and all while keeping a smile on his face too!

To assess the success of the training and the impact on practice, I asked tutors to record their thoughts at the end of each day and you can listen to their feedback here.

During the course of the training we did come across a few technical issues, namely:

We couldn't create more than 10 gmail accounts from the same IP address and so I realise now we should have asked delegates to create theirs before the start of the course.

We had difficulty in setting up SlideShare accounts simultaneously. Again, it would have been better to have asked tutors to do this beforehand.

Movie Maker continually crashed due to to only having 1.5 GB of RAM per machine. To get around this I asked delegates to import CC Flickr images instead and add a soundtrack, transitions and effects, music for the end credits and a title page which worked fine.

Admittedly, the gliches did put some people off as it knocked their confidence, but with a bit of encouragement we were able to work through this OK.

Complying to the terms of the funding, the toolkit will be made available for free to ACL tutors in the autumn term via the Excellence Gateway portal. We will be recommending however that centres hire me in to provide hands-on training for some or all of the tutorials as well to ensure staff are fully equipped to embed the techniques covered. We are also looking at offering a revised version for schools and again will be strongly suggesting that they also buy in hands-on training to support them in offering students these new and exciting distance learning opportunities. Watch this space!

21/07/2011

As a follow up to my participation in last month's innovative ICT Day at Medina High School on the Isle of Wight, I spent last Monday afternoon with the MFL department looking at ways they could use a class set of iPod Touches to engage their pupils and enhance language learning.

To give some structure to the training, I created a new page on the Posterous blog I set up to publish the podcasts we made during the two workshops in June.

Referring to Sharon Tonner's wonderful explanations on her I-C-T wiki, I demonstrated how easy it was to make different types of QR code with the site Sparqcode and within minutes we had created one linking to a URL and the other to some text. The advantage of the latter being that it will work offline as well as on. To read the codes, I recommended the free app I-nigma which works instantaneously when pointed in the right direction.

We then discussed how we could employ QR codes in language lessons.

e.g. For a URL QR code

To launch an mp3 file

To play a video

To visit an authentic website and answer some comprehension exercises

My favourite idea was to give students cards with QR codes on them linking to a text response whereby they would have to find their partner who had the answer to their question or the same information as them. Preparing the exercise wouldn't be too time-consuming as you could use the Teachers Pet toolbar to make picture flashcards in a few clicks or copy and paste multiple QR codes into a Word document, print it off on to card and cut them up from there.

Alternatively, you could just use Russell Tarr's wonderful QR Treasure Hunt Generator! which simplifies the process even more by creating the necessary QR codes for each question along with an answer sheet. Moreover, your devices don't have to be online for this to work and you need to input a minimum of five questions and answers. Try out his bookmarklet too which can generate a QR code of the web page you are on or any highlighted text on that page! The QR codes can then be copied and pasted into a document, printed off and cut up as previously suggested. The beauty of the text ones is that they don't need a connected device to work. Just think of the exciting exercises this could generate in MFL and yes QR codes can deal with accents!

Have a look too at QR code voting with Qwikvotes! The idea is a teacher sets the question, students scan generated QR code of their choice and then teacher clicks on show results.

For QR codes which link to URLs, another way of saving time would be to create a customised URL using the link shortening service Snipurl. This would mean you could use the same QR code, but change the URL it launches each time.

By clicking on the Manage Snips tab and Edit, you can see that you can change the Long URL and hit the Save Changes button without changing the shortened form. In this way, you can create a range of customised links with different nicknames e.g medinamfl1, medinamfl2 etc and generate QR codes for each one. These QR codes will not need to change because they will always link to the same customised URL. However, by changing the Long URL, the link that opens as a result can be different and so could be regularly updated for different purposes.

If you add a Private Key to your customised link, you will need to enter it and click Fetch my URL before being able to access the desired web page. To avoid this extra step, but keep your snipping private, you can add your Private Key after your link e.g. http://sn.im/medinamfl-medina

Both methods will ensure your snippings will not appear in the public timeline so it's up to you to choose which you prefer. Unfortunately, this will not work with text QR Codes only URL ones.

There are various apps which allow you to generate a QR code directly from your iPod Touch. Easy QR is my favourite as it is free and has a very simple clean interface. Using the text option, you can create QR codes for texts as well as URLs and save them as images in your Camera Roll so they can be scanned later.

One idea would be to make a QR code from a long piece of text and display the image on the board. Pupils could scan it in and then complete a Google Form also accessed via a QR code to show they had understood the contents. To finish, you could display the results on the board and go over the answers. Alternatively, pupils could generate their own QR codes and do a pair or group work activity which you would traditionally complete on paper.

Give students QR codes which link to revision PowerPoint presentations you’ve published on Slideshare so they can watch them on their mobile devices. You could embed a YouTube clip containing supplementary material which runs on one of the slides. This would work fine unless you wanted to make a Slidecast by synchronising an mp3 file with your presentation in which case, you could add a QR code on the slide in question and ask students to pause, watch the clip and then press play again. The QR code linking to the SlideShare version of a class presentation could be added to the last slide as a matter of course.

To enhance a departmental portfolio of levelled pieces of work, use QR codes to launch audio or video clips as evidence of speaking. Likewise, add QR codes to your prospectus linking to impressive multimedia outcomes highlighting the strengths of the school.

Use Sparqcode to generate a set of QR codes linking to Google Maps for a lesson on directions. Give pupils written or spoken instructions for where they need to go via a text or URL QR code and ask them to label the final destination they reach having followed the instructions.

Stick a URL QR code linking to work carried out in an ICT suite as proof of outcomes in pupils’ exercise books.

Create a QR code of an RSS feed to make it easier for students to subscribe to blogs and podcasts.

Use Snap.vu or BWScan to find out how many times a QR code has been scanned and by how many unique visitors. Choose the former if you want to clear results and receive email notifications. Choose the latter for more detailed analytics

For ILILC 2012, I’ve been reflecting on the possibilities of integrating QR codes into procedures and so far have come up with the following:

Create a QR code which links to a mobile friendly WebDoc full of multimedia goodness. Thanks to Shelly Terrell for the inspiration for this idea. This could be incorporated into a blog badge or added to any paper literature about the conference.

Put a QR code next to speaker’s bios in the conference programme which link to their respective blogs.

Create a multimedia QR code quiz to be completed between presentations at the MFL Show and Tell. Pub Quiz for the 21st century?

Here is an example Free Text poll to show you how it works with the iPod Touch or any other handheld device connected to the web.

click Save new poll.

On the right hand side, untick the box next to Text messages from and make sure there is a tick in the box by Web devices on.

Make a note of the number you need to use for your web response and go to http://pollev.com to submit it with your answer.

Return to the page where the answers to your poll are displayed to see your response.

Please note you can carry out a poll without being registered and your answers will be deleted after two weeks. Once the poll is finished though you can choose to click the Stop Poll button. You can also download a PowerPoint slide which contains the poll too and include it in a presentation.

Next we looked at recording audio on the iPod Touch. There are many apps which allow you to do this including the default Voice Memos app. One issue is the format the audio records in (m4a, AIFF, mp3, caf etc) and the second is how to transfer it off the device, if it needs editing and publishing.

The second app is VR+ Voice which costs £1.19 on the app store and records directly as mp3. You can also transfer the files wirelessly from the device to a computer using a URL. Listen to John singing its praises here as well as Wifi Photo Transfer which works in the same way, but for images.

I demoed iTalk and showed how to download files from the iPod Touch. They were suitably impressed!

To finish the session we talked about file management using DropBox and touched upon the digital storytelling apps SonicPics and Our Story. The latter looks particularly good and was designed by the Open University to promote reading.

Check out as well my MFLedapps blog which features links and video clips of many apps I feel could be useful in enhancing language learning. I've used tags on the right hand side to specify in which skill area they could be particularly effective, if they are free or not and if they are for the iPod or iPad. A good place to find educational apps is on Twitter. Search for edapps and you're bound to find some gems!

Tiverton has been an Apple Regional Training Centre since 2006 and Gemma was lucky enough to attend this year's Apple Teacher Institute in Cheltenham where she learnt along with other educators how to use the iPod Touch, iPad and MacBook as learning tools in the classroom. It was here she found out about Puppet Pals, a free app for the iPod Touch or iPad which allows you to make a customised animation using your own images and audio recordings. You can check out examples her Yr 9 pupils produced in German during the project on their own blog here.

To give everyone a real sense of autonomy and ownership, Gemma decided to let her pupils select who they wanted to work with and how they wanted to employ the iPod Touch they were allocated. One group chose to use the multi-functional device principally as a video camera to make a film which they then edited and subtitled in iMovie. One group created a slideshow of images taken around the school to illustrate school subjects in German. Another group translated the song Friday by Rebecca Black into German and applied effects to it in GarageBand and finally a less keen group simply recorded an audio soundtrack and embedded it into PowerPoint to practise their German.

According to Gemma, the pupils liked being trusted to use the handheld tools to produce personalised resources in creative and independent ways and were almost unanimously positive about what they had achieved in the process. Following this success, Gemma is now considering new ways of using the iPod Touches as well as incorporating other technolologies into her lessons such as Edmodo.

Gemma has found blogging about her classroom practice a great way of reflecting on what she does and analysing what she needs to do to improve. Her honest approach has generated a lot of positive feedback from her readers which she finds motivating and encourages her to explore further possibilities. She also finds reading other colleagues' blogs and using Twitter fantastic for getting ideas and peer support.

"I think when you're writing online to a wider audience, you really think about what you're putting on there and you really think about what you've been doing in a different way and it's helped me to stay motivated by knowing that people have been reading my blog and I've got a lot of positive feedback from it as well, but also I think it's really good as a reflective practitioner in terms of writing down what you do and analysing whether it was good and admitting to yourself that you've made a terrible mistake for all to see and that kind of thing really. It's been a really good experience and it's something that I try to promote to other colleagues as well because I think it's something you can gain a lot from."

Considering Gemma is at the beginning of her teaching career, I think she has achieved a great deal so far, motivating her pupils and helping them improve their language learning with technologies they love to engage with in their own time. She also represents a new type of 21st century practitioner who is willing to blog about what she is doing in her classroom as a way of consolidating her own thoughts and connecting with a global audience.

Wouldn't it be great if all NQTs had the opportunity and desire to embrace new technologies in this way. Josh Milne from South Alabama certainly thinks along those lines!